#L1B1URY OF CONGRESS. # 
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UNITED STATKS UF AMERICA. | 



LECTURE 



DELIVERKD AT THE 



BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, 



/ 



BY 



BENJ. F. BUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS, 

A'orembei' 2/^th, /86G. 



/V 




1 The Usurpations, Wrongs and Abuses of Executive Power, and the 
^ Constitutional Remedy therefor. 



♦ » ♦ « ♦ 



Gen. Butler said : 
Fair Ladies, Gentlemen of Brooklyn : 

KEPCBHOS ALWAYS HAVE BEEN FAILURES. 

All experiments of Governmetit, republi- 
can in form, have hitherto been failures. — 
Whether conducted by the polished intellec- 
tual Athenian ; the rugged, austere Spartan; 
the warlike, enterprising, but luxurious Ro- 
man of ancient days; or in the present cen- 
tury by the mercurial but pliilosophical 
Frenchman, worshipping the Goddess of 
IJeason and theorizing a Utopia ; or by the 
crisp-haired semi-barbarous Haytien just 
emerging from the darkness of ages into the 
light of civilization, — each and all have been 
merged in despotism or ended in anarchy 
tempered with autocracy. 

True, the free Swifzer still sways his 
snow-crowned Alps by elected rulers, but his 
Government holds its power not iri its 
strength but in its insignificance, and rather 
serves as an illustration than a contraveniion 
of this great truth. 

HISTORY TEACHES THE SAME FATE FOR AME31Ci. 

History in all ages has repealed herself, 
when the conditions under which she exhib- 
its the aflaiis of man are the same, as well 
in acts as situation. Startling as is ihi? fact 
to the Ainerican patriot when reasoning a 
priori upon the future of his country, the 
enemies of free institutions, denying the ca- 
pacity of men for self-government, liave nev- 
er failed to press it upon him, whenever the 
safely, stability or dural)ility of different 
forms of government are the topic of discus- 
sion or prophecy. 

Sad indeed would be the forebodings of 
the American staiesman for the future of his 
country — nay, of the verv existence of liber- 
ty itself in the world — if he could find no 
vital distinctions by which to lake our last 
and so far best experiment of free frovern- 
mcnt from the inexorable uesiiny to which it 



seems fated in the light of philosophy teach- 
ing through example. 

It would also seern to be his highest duty, 
takinc warning from the story of the past, so 
to shape the course and current of govern- 
menial action as to avoid the vortex in wliich 
all other free governments have been drawn 
and foundered. 

ALL HAVE FAILED FROM THE SAME CAL'SE. 

The '' beginning of their end" has been as 
uniform as their destruction has been uni- 
versal. The same harbinger has heralded 
the downfall of each, at once the precursor 
and cause of death — 
USURPATIuN OF EXECUTIVE POWER, 

AND THE NEGLECT OF THiPFOPLE TO RESIST THE 
EARLIER ENClvOACHMENTS UPON TUEIB KIOUTS 
AND LIbERTIfcS. 

How to meet these dangers to our Repub- 
lic, will not unprotitably employ an even- 
ing's thought. 

THE STRENGTH OF OUR GOVEUNMFNT IN WAR. 

Those who advocate the capacity of the 
few to govern, and the necessity of the 
many to be governed ; the superiority of a 
monarchical over an elective representative 
government, havs never ceased to tell us 
that " Our Democracy " had not that firm- 
ness of purpose or ad he si on, su file i en t to ena- 
ble us to carry on a long or devasiaiing war. 
We have answered that, by raising larger 
armies in less lime than atiy other nation of 
which there is even a fabled record. We 
have successfully carried on a war. more 
terrible, more extensile, more bloody in its 
details, and more important in its great re- 
sults, than any war ever waged. And this 
loo a civil war, which all history shows to he 
more fymg to the btability of a government 
than foreign invasion or foreign aggression. 

OUR ABILITY TO BORROW MONEY AND PAY IT. 

Again : we are told, that a government 
based solely on the will of the people could 
never enjoy the confidence of wealth and 



capital so as lo borrow large amounts of 
mo(iey on extended loan. To this asain 
we answer: America has borrowed tnore 
money, bv hundreds of millions, and in less 
tiiup, and at a better rale of investment, than 
did ever all the Empires. KinfT(loins and Prin- 
ciOciliiies of Europe put tofjeiher. Aye, and 
far greater and nobler, when the exigency 
lias past, we becan paying what we borrow- 
ed, principal and interest, which they never 
did. 

OCR GOVERNMENT THE 8TR0NGKST FOR TAXATION. 

Again, it has been said that the crownins 
test of the inefficiency of a representative 
government would come vvhen the people 
were called upon to vole to tax themselves to 
pay a largely accumulated Nationsl debt. 

Thai democracv wasbul another name for 
repudiation. 

We reply, that at this hour we are the 
worst or best taxed people on the face of the 
globe. To redeem our National faith we 
cheerfully pav to the Government of our free 
choice, from our substance, double and treble 
whaidil the Hebrew both for his govern- 
ment and reliirion. and double and treble all 
thai any tyrant, by whatever name, has ever 
wrung by oppres^ion from the grasp of a 
cru^hed people. And even now are ringing 
in our cars ihe thunder tones of the joyous 
shouts of millKms of intelligent free««en over 
the asloundinii majorities of ballots voting to 
engraft upon the very frame-work of our 
Government our National Debt, so that Na- 
tional Credit may never be impaired though 
ii may lake ihe last dollar and the last loaf 
10 redeem it. 

THE PATRIOTISM OF OIR CITIZEN SOlDIEnS — 
NO DANOKR FROM THEM. 

Another and greater danger to our free in- 
slitulions was cliimed when the war ended. 
Our victorious armies, greater than the fa- 
bled hosts of Xerxfs, flushed with success, 
their soldiers, combined tocfttherand endear- 
ed to each oiher by the hardships of the bi- 
vouac niid ihe perils of baitle, enticed by the 
romance, the excitemint and the allurements 
of r'amp ami Held, — their officers in love with 
a profe«sion, at on'i^e chivaliic and commaod- 
ini». wherein laurels were to be woti, di.-linc- 
tion, and lii^h positions attained, both, and 
i-arh .ipurnio;^ the lame irts of peace, unwil- 
ling to rclurn to the monotony of every d«y 



life, under the lead of some bold bad man, 
but brilliant and unscrupulous soldier, would, 
like the Roman legions, seize upon the Gov- 
ernmenl, make their General supreme, and 
govern by the sword. On the contrary, 
these armies have melted nway "like the 
snow-flake soft lalling on the sod," — the sol- 
dier merginor In the civilian, all the better 
citizen because he had been a good soldier, 
bringing home the discipline of the army, as 
instruction lo obedience of the law, honored 
by the people for his deeds of valor or en- 
durance in the field, and so far from being 
dreaded as dangerous to the liberties of the 
people, leaned upon as the right arm of sup- 
port in peace, of those free iristituiions which 
he had preserved in war. 

OlR COUNTRY PlRtR AND BETTEH FOR THE -nAR. 

Thus all these perils so fatal either in de- 
tainer in the aggregate to so manv republics, 
have not only been passed in safely, but the 
Country has surmounted them with accumu- 
lated power ami grandeur, purged 'rom slav- 
ery, the last vestige of sin and wrong in her 
Constitution, with liberty and eijuality of 
right to all men, for h'T motto, and her es- 
cutcheon briyht, spotless, stainless and pure 
as the glittering shield of Richard the Lion- 
hearted when he dashed it in the face of the 
hosts of the Saracen. 

TUB SAFE GUARDS OF LIBERTY: RELIGION AND 
INTELLIGENCE. 

What element*, then, has this our Repub- 
lic, which others had not that she laughs to 
scorn hnzanls which were fatal to ihem ? — 
The Scliodl House and the Church, Educatio7i 
and Christianity, 'never before ^ive?i to a 
whole people under a liepuUic. 

NO COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH. 
To a ukole people, tJid I .say ? Ah ! would it 
hat! been so. Therein lies the difficulty. '■ It 
was a grievous fiiult and {grievously have we an- 
swered it." Over nearly one h>lf ofour territory 
heretofore 8wa>int.' quiie that proportion of po- 
litical i)Owers, there has never been estaljlishetl 
any system of edi.catioii free am) common to all, 
in which the people ccpuld be instructed in their 
duly to their ft-Hownien and their counlr/. and 
;he larfjer pari ot whose inhabitanis were unable 
even lo read the IJook of Life. Far more mis- 
erabln anU wretched besiilo, to almost a majority 
of the people, the truths of the gospel were 
liidilen or pervi-rled, and inarriafjc, the most 
holy of the sacraments of the church, ibe very 



fonndatjon af society, even as a civil contract, 
was denied. 

IGNORANCE THE SOURCE OF TIIKASON. 

Is it a marvel then that el-ven Suites, with 
people thus besot'ed by i^jnorance, «iih govern- 
n^ents republican in form, cursed with an insti 
tution which, demoralizing tha people of the 
Grecian and U.man ilepublies, hastened their 
downfall ; bound to the parent governiru'nt by 
moral and political obligations only, should 
break away from all ties of loyally and patriot- 
ism which hold men to country and government, 
to tTv the experiment of despotism and end in 
anarchy. 

What else could have been expected, reading 
their horoscope by the light of historical exam- 
ple, hut rebellion, treason, war, intensified by 
murderous atrocities of starvation of the pris- 
oner and helpless, culminating in the wicked 
ao'iss^ination of the purest and best pitriot, 
Lincoln. 

Oiignt we not to be thankful to (he Almighty 
Di,-poser of ever.ts that there was enough of in 
telligence, virtue, Cuurasje and Chz-istiaii faith in 
the North to redeem the country as fro n the 
gulf of perdition, to the brink of which, igno- 
rance, sin and slavery had brought it ? 

HOW C.iN THE SOUTH BE BEST REORANIZED ? 

Now that organized resistance to the laws has 
ceased in thai terntorj' which the sword and 
the sword alone, has conquere(f — how shall the 
people thereof, with safety to themselves and to 
the whide country, be brought to enjoy the 
bles,«ings of free institutions insuring equality of 
rights and justice to all 1 

That problem so vast, so momentous, so vital, 
can only be solved by the wisdom of experience 
learning from the events of ihe past. 

POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY WILL NOT DO IT. 

Political expedients adjusting balances of 
power: Conventions framing constitoiions ol 
gcvernment ; Presidents inventing policies oli 
reconstiuction ; Congress passing acts o( a<lniis- 
sion or rejection of re-organized o- disorganized 
States, cannot compass it ; each and all, all the 
devices of State rraft will fail as they always 
un<'er like conditions, have failed. Even the 
n€w boon, universal freedom, has not and will 
not accomplish it. Universal, impartial sufrra:;e 
allied to universal ignorance, will only add 
t • the danger ; giving to the masses the club of 
Hercules to be wielded with the strength of the 
blin<f Sampson, after h*- had been a slave grind- 
ing in the prison house of the Philisiines. 
DNIVERSAI. EDUCATION, INTELLECTUAL AND RELIG- 
lOfS, THE ONLY SAFETY. 

Universal education, the common school and 
the Church, are the only bases upon which the 



South can be safely and permanently recon- 
structed Let the Rchoolhouse arise in h»-r 
every hamlet and jtrecinci, free to all, black ami 
whit-* alike ; Kcatiering irs blehsings upon all, 
upon the loyal and disloyal, bountiful and broad- 
cast, like the dews of heaven on the just and 
unjust. 

Tlie church will follow the school as a fpsitrirg 
mother, and the seeds of reiigi n will not fall on 
stony ground, where learning has upturned lh« 
mind and heart by her benign inlluencfs. 

Let nothing hinder this method of reconstruc- 
tion. All others are temporary expedients which 
will fail, and fortunate it will be for the Country 
if they do not fail in anarchy and blood. This 
alone is safe and eternal. 

THERE IS POWICR IN CONGRESS TO ESTABLISH 

SCHOCLS IN THE SOUTH. 
Let us not be told that there is no power given 
by the Constiiuiion to Congrnss to educa'e the 
people of these conquered territories. It the pow- 
er is not in the organic law, put it there, an I ;tt 
once. But 1 deny the proposition Adequate 
power is now in the Constitution from ne' es-n v. 
because of the very instincts of 8elf-pre«ervaiinn. 
Nay, it is there in words : ■' Congress shall havo 
power to provide for the common defence ar.d 
general welfare of the United States." 

What better defence can be provided agaiist 
the worst and df-adliest enemies of all free gov- 
ernments, ionorar.ce and vice, than learning a; d 
religion 1 How bet'er " provide for the general 
welfare of the United Sates " than to educate 
that people to a knowledge of their rights and 
duties, where degradatio.i, slavery, feudalism 
class legislation in peace, and the devastations of 
war and the march of armies have taken fro'n 
them the power even, if not the will of fitting 
themselves to preserve the blessings of free gov- 
ernment. 

NOTHING MUST HINDKR THIS REMEDY IF YOU 
WOULD E&CAPE the fate OF ALL RKPUBUCS. 

Let no traditions of "overnmen* ; let no mere 
formsoflaw; no circumlocutions of State craf ; 
or any of the clogs of the dead past prevent ihs 
education of the Southern people. 

Urged by the warnings of History. I p'ead as 
tor my life, for this, the only assurance id the 
succe.is of this greatest, and if ii fad, this last e.\- 
periment of freedom and liappinnS') of the peo- 
pie, untrodden by uespoii^m. Wiih the wadii g 
cry of him who s-es the ark of sa'^eiy forever di-^- 
appearinir in the whirling waste of wa'ers, I 
pray that the intelliuence and chri.'itianity of < ur 
educated people mav turn aside the wand of ihtt 
Muse of History pointing downwanJ the course 
of our Countrv. to follow in the long ranks of 
buried Republics, to ijuide us in a Iriuonphal 
march, onward ! upward, forever ! 



TIGII ANCE AND INTEGRITY ALSO NECESSAUT. 

Will the^e so great safeguards be sufficient 
withoul that vii.'ilance and inteurily of the 
people, which sliall watch and resis*. the first 
>o danijerous encroachments ol Executive 
power. Noihinff can be more f.ilal to liberty 
than the lisilr>ss carelessness which pass?s 
over nnheedf.'il the first steps of usiirpaiion. 
All History leaches that no despot has ever 
seized upon V<e liberties of a people until the 
people weie familiarized by frequent allu- 
sions to its possibility. 

ALL CJtANGES OF GOVERNMENT HERALDED RY DIS- 
CVSSINO THE ru.^^SIBIUfY BY DE>rOTS. 

No change of Government has ever yet 
taKen place, no ereat ctisis has ever yet oc- 
curred in the afi'airj of a Nation, until the 
peoi'le have been lulled into neglifjence by 
hearing the frequent discussion of its likeli- 
hood. We are apt to shut our eyes and ears 
10 any supposition of danger to come fn m 
woiils. We are inclined to sav " that is only 
lalli, wait till some Act is done, and then it 
will he time to move," but words may be and 
sometimes are things, "l.ving, burning things, 
that set a world on fire." 

IF TALK OF 8ECPS5ION HAD BEEN PUNISHED, THE 
WAR HAD NEVER OCCURRED. 

As a most notable instance of the power 
of words, look at the inception of the rebel- 
lion through which we have jusl passed. — 
For a quarter of a century the Nation took 
no notice of the talk of disunion and seces- 
sion which was heard in Coiij^ress and on 
the " slump," until in the South a genera- 
tion was taught it by word, and the word 
suddenly burst forth into terrible, awful war. 
Does anvbody doubt that if Jnclcson had 
lianired Calhoun in 1S32, for talking nullifi- 
cation and secession which was eml)ryo trea- 
son, that the cannon of South Carolina 
against Fort Sumter would ever have been 
heard with all their fearful ami deadly con- 
.'^equetices ? Nay, more ; if United States 
officers, Senators and Kepre-'enlaiives had 
been irnpfarhed and di?qiialified from of- 
fice in 1832, for advocating secession on 
the "stump," as was done in 18G2 liy Con- 
gress, then our sons and brothers, now dead 
HI battle or starved in prison, had been alive 
and happy, and a pcacrful solution of the 
r|ue:!tion of slavery hud been found. 



THE OEEAT CRIME OF SUGGESTING THAT A DICTATOB 
IS POSSIBLE IN THIS COUNTRY. 

Whoever, then, shall suffgesl the possibil- 
ity that the form of our Government may be 
changed, and that a "King" or a "Dictator" 
may seize the liberties of the people, com- 
mits a great crime and misdemeanor against 
free government. It is an insult to the intel- 
ligence and virtue of the people to suppose 
that thing possible. The Roman law is said 
not to have contained any penalty against a 
child killing his parent, because by makinf? 
a provision against so horrid a crime the law 
would suppose parricide possible. So there 
is no express enactment in our Constitution, 
and laws to punish the declaration that any 
man by the use of the patronage of the gov- 
ernment and the Army and Navy of the peo- 
ple may take away their liberties, and make 
himself either King or Dictator, but the 
crime of und- rmining the confidence and af- 
fection of the people to iheir institutions is 
not therefore less, and all the greater when 
it emanates from high official position. The 
hope, wish or ihoueht of the possibility, pub- 
licly expiessed by any officer of ihe Govern- 
ment, Civil or Military, that he could become 
the tyrant of the people, under whatever 
name, is a heinous ofTence, for which the 
Constitution has provided a sure and conserv- 
ative remedy. 

THE WARNING OF WASHINGTON AGAINST USUR- 
PATION. 

I Again, our frame of government divides 
its poivers among several departments, care- 
i fully adjusting the balance, so that neither 
I can usuip any that behings to the other with- 
|out the utmost danger to the whole. This 
I peril of usurpation was foreseen by our 
) patriot fathers, and Washington makes it the 
: subject of a solemn warning in his farewell 
' address. Hear liira : 

" It is important, likewise, that the habits 

" of thinking, in a free Country, should in- 

" spire caution in those intrusted with its ad- 

" ministration, to confine themselves within 

" their respective constitutional spheres, 

" avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of 

" one Department, to encroach upon another. 

•'The spirit of encroachment tends to consol- 

I" idaie the powers of ail'the Departments in 

I" one, and thus to create, whatever the form 

(" of government, a rtul despotism." . 



7 



" But lei there be no changfe by usurpa- 
*' tion ; for thouojh this, in one instance may 
*' be the inslrunnent of good, it is the custoin- 
"ary weapon by which Iree Governments are 
♦' destroyed." 

IMPEACHMENT ESTABLISHED AS A EEMED"! FOU 
USUKl'ATION AND JUSISEIIAYIOR IN OFFICE. 

Our patriot heroes founding a government, 
of itself born of a Revolution springing from 
ihe oppressions of a King and an irresponsi- 
ble Ministry, availing themselves of every 
safeguard of British freedom, declared in 
Magna Charta, added thereto frequency of 
election of the Chief Executive and ihe Leg- 
islative Branch of (he State ; but mindful 
that the Roman Consuls, although annually 
elected even, contrived to usurp power until 
they became dictators, contemning the max- 
im that a king could do no wronir, and im- 
pressed with the fact from sad experience, 
that princes and mmislers of State were not 
angels of Grace, carefully provided for usurpa- 
tion of power and all misbehavior in offit e, 
the great, constitittional, conservative remedy 
of impeachment a?id removal. 

IMPEACHMENT DlKECTED AGAINST MISCONDUCT OF 
OFFICERS. 

That this remedy was principally directed 
against ottteial misbehavior, and not against 
the personal crimes of the officer, is seen 
from the fact that the penalty upon impeach- 
ment was only removal from, and disqualifi- 
cation for office. They left the appointment 
and removal of all other officers, except judg- 
es, with the consent of the Senate, at the dis- 
cretion of the President, for such cause as he 
might deem sufficient. And they left his 
removal to the discretion of the House of 
Representatives of the people, for such cause 
as they should judge sufficient, with the like 
advice and consent of the Senate. Judgjes 
being the only officers not Legislative who 
are not removable at the will of the President 
and Senate, either with or without cause, 
there has been no occasion to impeach any 
officer, save judges ; so that impeachment has 
been comparatively rare. Indeed, there has 
been but four cases, two successful and two 
unsuccessful impeachments. 

JUDGE PICKERING CONVICTED OP DRUNKENNESS. 

The first was of Judge Pickering of New 
Hampshire in 1803, for drunkenness, the low- 
est form of offence, but a high misdemeanor 



from the official position of the accused. His 
defence was that he did not n:et drunk as 
Judge but as a mun, but the Senate decided 
that when tfie man was intoxicated, the 
Judge was drunk, and removed him from of- 
fice. His being but a fault of the head and 
not of the heart, the Senate did not give 
judgment to disqualify him from holding of- 
fice thereafter. 

JULGE CHASE IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A SPEECH 
AGAINST UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 

In lS04,Judge Samuel Chase,of Maryland, 
was impeached for arbitrary and illegal con- 
duct on the bench, and for making an in- 
flammatory political harangue, " with intentto 
excite the fears and resentment of the Grand 
Jury, and good people of Maryland, against 
their State government and Constitution, a 
conduct highly censurable in any, but pecu- 
liarly indecent and unbecoming in a Judge 
of the Supreme Court of the United States." 

Upon examining the evidence, it appears 
thai Judge Chase, at the conclusion of his 
charge, made a speech, to the Grand Jury, 
against the universal white suffrage law of 
Maryland, contending that it was not expe- 
dient to let men vole who did not own prop- 
ertv. 

The Judge's observations are singularly 
temperate as compared with the speeches we 
have been lately accustomed to hear from 
high official sources, and yet nineteen (19) 
Senators, Democratic Senators, found him 
guilty, while fifteen (15) Senators, Federal- 
ists, voted not guilty. This was a larger 
vote against him than was given upon either 
of the other seven articles of impeachment. 

A POLITICAL SPEECH IS AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENCE. 

This, then, establishes the rule that in the 
judgment of the majority of the House and 
Senate of that day, some of them (he very 
men that helped frame the Constitution, a 
political harangue by a great officer might 
be cause of impeachment and removal. In- 
deed, the contrary was not contended by the 
counsel for Judge Chase ; they only insisted 
that his speech was not obnoxious, but in 
this they were overruled by a majoiity of 
that august Court. 

In 1531, Judge Peck of Missouri was im- 
peached for the arbitrary and illegal impris- 
onment of one Lawless, a lawyer, but the 
impeachment failed for want of proof. 



8 



JVOOB HUMPHREYS IMPEACHED FOB ADVOCATING 
THE BKiUT OF RECESSION. 

The last and most interestirifj case of im- 
peachment at the present jtiiiciure was that 
(if Judtje Humphreys of Tennessee upon tlie 
complaint of Andrew Johnson, in June, 1SG2. 
One of the cliarges against Humphreys, of 
which he was unanimously found guilty by 
I'le Senate, ivas, that at Nashville, on the 
>^9th day of December, 1S60, at a public 
meeiing, he " did then and there publicly de- 
clare that it was the right of the people of 
said Slate by the ordinance of secession to 
absolve iheniselves from allegiance to the 
Gov^rnnieot of the United Slates, the Con- 
sii'uiion and laws ihereol." Among the 
articles of impeachment against Humphreys 
was a charge that as confederate Judge after 
tlie secession of Tennessee, he had decreed 
the confiscation of ihe properly of Andrew 
Johnson. Upon this charge he was acquit- 
ted. 

This case is exceedingly instructive. It 
determines that a speech may be an im- 
peachable ofTence. Every Senator, 3S in 
number, Democrats included, voted that a 
political speech by a United Stales officer in 
a public meeting before the war, advocating 
secession, was ahiiih crime and misdemean- 
or- But Judge Humphreys only advanced 
publicly the right of secession which had 
been advocated in the South for thirty years 
by Calhoun and his disciples. How much 
would have been saved to ihe country if the 
first utierer of it had been impeached ! What 
a lesson is taught us that ihe first utterances 
of olTicials dangerous to liberiy and law 
should be promptly punished, however high 
trie offender may be. Let jusiice be done 
though the Heavens fall ! 

ANDBEW JOHKSON COMPLAINANT IS ESToPPED TO 
DENY THE POWEE OF CONGRESS TO IMPEACH HIM 

Again : Andrew Johnson was a complain- 
ant in this case, so that he is concluded 
by it 10 deny, 1st. That an improper public 
^^peech of a high official m impeachable. — 
Second. That a House of Representatives 
fro n which eleven Stales are e.xcluded is not 
a Constitutional House, with the power of 
impeachment, and that a Senate from which 
twerily-iwo mombfrs are excluded are not 
II C-in^titutional Court to try and determine 
iin impeachment. 



Humphreys, when summoned before the 
Senate, refused to appear, and was tried and 
convicted in his absence. So thai Andrew 
Johnson, ihe complainant, and every Demo- 
cratic Senator of that day and a majoriiv of 
the Republican Senators of the present Sen- 
ate are concluded by their vo es and acts un- 
der their solemn oaths, upon every disputed 
question that would possibly arise upon an 
impeachment of the President of the United 
Slates, save one which we will directly dis- 
cuss. Let us repeat, the President, House 
and Senate have solemnly committed them- 
selves to the proposition, that a House from 
which the Representatives of eleven States 
are excluded, is a Constiiulional House for 
the purpose of an impeachment of a high of- 
ficer of the United States. 

A SENATE -WITH ELEVEN STATES OUT A LEGAL COITRT. 

2nd. That the Senate from which the 
members of eleven Slates are excluded and 
some of them expelled, is a legal High Court 
of Impeachment to try any such officer, al- 
ihouiih it may be certain that if the excluded 
members were present the offiender would be 
acquitted, because nobody believes that Ben- 
jamin, Slidell and Davis would have found 
their brother secessionist Humphieys guilty 
if ihey had been present, and the iwenly-lwo 
voles of the revolting Senators, more than 
one-third, would have acquitted him. 

ADVOCATING AN UNLAWFUL ACT A HIGH CRIME, 
WORTHY OF IMPEACHMENT. 

3rd. That the advocacy by a high officer 
of the United Stales of an unlawful proposi- 
tion in a political speech is sufficient ground 
of impeachment. Therefore that mere 
words are sufficient without any overt net. 

TUB ACCUSED MAY BE HEARD IN HIS ABSENCE. 

4ih. That if the accused neglects or refus- 
es to appear before the Senate when sum- 
moned, he may be tried, convicted and de- 
posed from office, in his absence. 

The only remaining question, not settled 
by this precedent is, whether the Senate, 
when sitting as a high (!5ourt of Impeach- 
ment, can bring the oflTender before it and 
suspend, or remove him from office during 
the trial ? 

ALL THE POWERS OP IMPEACHMENT DERIVED FROM 
ENGLISH LAW. 

When the Consiilulion was framed the le- 
2ul terms used in it were wholly taken from 



Enijlish law, and its provision? were assim- 
ilated to the Consliliiiional his^tory of the 
mother cniintry When therefore our fath- 
ers provided in the Constituiion for " trial 
by iuiy." tiiey left it to the Eiiiilij^h coinmon 
law to defiiie what a jiiry was and how the 
tri\l should be conducted, I^o when the 
Constiiiiiion speaks of " a suit at Law or j 
Equity," it leaves the definiiion and course 
of proccedingr to the Engiisli laws. So when 
a felony is mentioned, we must go to this law 
to ascertain what a lelony is, and these il- 
lustrations may be multiplied almost i'ldefi- 
riitely. So when the " sojp power of Im- 
peachment" is given in the House of Repre- 
sentatives we Idoli to the cusioa\s and law of 
Parliament to asceitain what that power is 
and the manner in which it may be exercis- 
ed. So when the Constitution gave to the 
Senate " the sole power lo try all iinpeaeh- 
nients," we are remitted to the precedents of 
the House of Peers to ascertain how that 
power shall be exeicised. It will ul-o be ob- 
served that whenever the framers of the 
Constitution intend to limit lliat power of the 
House or Senate in impeachment, or lo vary 
the manner of its exercise, they do it by ex- 
press words. For example : when the Sen- 
ate is sitting as a Court of Impeachment, it 
is provided that " they must be upon oath 
or affirmation," althongh the Peers voted 
upon honor only. 

It being well known that the House of 
Lords had frequently condemned to pay a 
fine, as in the ca^e of Lord Chancellor Ba- 
con, or imprisoninent or death, those impeach- 
ed before thpm, our Constituiion restricts the 
judgment of the Senate to removal and dis- 
qualification from office only. 

All other incidents of the impeachment, 
the trial, the power of the Senate to bring 
the accused before it, to require him to an- 
swer, to summon witnesses and punish for 
contsmpt, and the forms of its judgment are 
left to be gathered from the customs of Par- 
liament. And it Will be seen that in the iiri- 
peachment and trial of Judges Pickering and 
Chase, in 1S03 and 1804, the same men who 
framed the Constitution sitting in the House 
and Senate, conducted tho.^e cases strictly 
according to the English precedents in all 
points not changed by the express words of 
the Constitution. 



WHEN AN OFFICER 18 IMPEACHKD HK MAY BE 6U»- 
PENOkD AND llEMOVKI) FK( M OFFICE. 

Now, it was familiar History that the Com- 
mons of En<iland,\\hen they mipeached any 
person not a Peer of the Realm, took him inlo 
custody of iheir Ser^-eant at Arms, as soon as 
the impearhment was determined upon in that 
body, and delivered the prisoner over, still in 
custody, to the House of Lords, w hen the ar- 
ticles of iujpeachment were placed before the 
Peers, as in Doctor Sacheverell's case, im- 
peached for preaching a sermon, or held him 
to b.iil as in Seymour's case. The accused 
persons being in prison were of course sus- 
pended from the exercise of their dfficial 
functions. A que<tion arose, however, 
whether when a Peer of the Realm was im- 
peached he could before trial be suspended 
liom his funciion in the House of Lords. — 
This Was denied by the Lords and asserted 
by the Commons, as it would seem to be 
manifestly improper for an officer to exercise 
the duties of his office while being tried for 
high crimes and mi-demeanors. 
THIS Power of kemoval was put in the con- 

bTlTUTIoN. 

To provide against such controversy in ths 
future, in our Cun>tilul;on it is declared that 
" The Pre-Mdent, Vice President and all oth- 
er Civil officers may be removed from office 
upon impeachment for, and conviction of, 
Treason, Biibery, and other high crimes and 
misdemeanors." 

If the officer could only be removed or 
suspended from the exercise of his office up- 
on conviction, that beino against the custom 
of Parliament, it would have been expressly 
so enact3d in the Constitution, but the exact 
contrary are the words of th'j Corjsiituiion, 
the officer being removable " upon impeach- 
ment for and conviction of high crimes and 
misdemeanors." And the higher the officer, 
the more need that he shall- be removed from 
office lest he shall by influence corrupt both 
witnesses and Jud<fes, and that is possible. 

OTHERWISE THE CHIMINAL COUID APPOINT HIS 
OWN JUDGE. 

A single illustration \v ill serve to show that 
it could never have been intended by the 
framers of our Constitution in their wisdom 
to permit the President, while he v\as beincr 
tried for the hijhest crimes, to exercise the 
functions of his great offii'e. The Chief 
Justice of the United States can alone pre- 



10 



side on the trial of ihe President, suppose 
tiKil afier ihe iinpertrhment and betnre the 
trial lh<' Chief Justice shouM die, ilien it 
would be the coMslitiuional right of l»ie Pres- 
id-:-!!!, as well as his duty, if his ofli.'e con- 
tinues to him until conviction, to appoint a 
Cnief Justice to preside at his trial. " Will 
any m\n with a mind not borderinij on insan- 
ity"' claim that the wise men who framed our 
government intended that the greatest of 
crimin lis while on trial should appoint his 
own Judue to try him ? Besides, ii'the peo- 
ple of the United Siains by their Representa- 
tives ever do impeach the President for hi()h 
crimes and misdemeanors against our liber- 
ties, he will have business enough on his 
hands to defend himself from that charge, 
not to find time to perform th? executive du- 
ties of President of the United States. 

How TUB TllIAL OF AN IMPEACHMENT Is. CONDUCTED. 

Ii may not be uninteresting to observe 
that by the English law the incidents of a 
trial of an impeachincnt differ fro.n trials in 
Court. When the Representatives of the 
whole oeople vot<? to impeach an officer, the 
procee(iing is of so solemn a nature that the 
p;irticulars of the offence, as in the case o( 
an indictment, are not required to be written 
out, until the offender is jharge-d before the 
Senate, sitting as a Court. The proceeding 
in such case is this : A message is sent to the 
Senate, informing thai body that an im- 
peachment has been found, and that articles 
will be Dreferred, and if the offences are 
grave, praying the offender may be held to 
answer, if not then in custody. Thereupon 
the accused is either by summons or arrest 
brought to the bar of the Senate and ihe ac- 
cusation read to him, and his answer taken. 
Fron that hour his person is in custody of 
the Court, and he has no farther official func- 
tions. 

NO SKNATOn CAN BE CHALLESOED BY TUB ACCUSED. 

Another peculiarity in a trial before the 
Senate is that it is no cause of challenge to 
a Senator as it would be to a juror that he 
lia'l formed or e.xpressed an opinion on the 
merits of the case, or even tliat he is reh.ted 
to the accused ; the brothers and .■»ons of the 
pri«oner3 at thp bar of the House of Lords 
fre(|uentlv voting on the question of their 
gui.t or innocence. The reason of this is 
that there can be no talesmen to supply the 



place of a Senator if he should be challenged 
by the accused. 

COMMON FAME SUFFICIENT TO IMPEACH. 

There is still another distinction from or- 
dinary trials, in case of impepchment, which 
it is interesting to notice, and that is that the 
Representatives of the people may nroceed 
against high offu-ers U| on common fame or 
common report of their misconduct, and the 
reason given for this apparent anomaly is 
that if it were not so, great offenders would 
be the only ones safe in ihtir crimes, because 
when in power and authority no private per- 
son would venture to prosecute or make 
kno vn their wrongs, so that until they are 
impeached, and deprived of power and offi- 
cial station, witnesses would not dare to come 
forward and give evidence against them. 
Besides, impeachment is an act of Govern- 
ment, and all governme'ital acts are based 
upon facts of which History and common 
fame are the only evidence. 

NOTUING BUT DI<iQU AL'FICATION FROM OFFICE TO 
Bd THE SENTKNCE. 

Another and amusing popular mistake up- 
on the effect of an impeachment, that the 
sentence may order the execution of the party 
convicted, would not deserve notice except 
that it has obtained favor with the President 
of the United States, who says in one of his 
speeches : " Would they take off my head, 
as they did the head of James the Second?" 
The President is at fault. By the Constitu- 
tion, only the official head of the officer is, 
to be taken off, of which he himself has tak- 
en off so many. Farther — James the Sec- 
ond's head was never taken off at all except 
in this wise : After having misgoverned his 
Kingdom, and disaffected his people, he be- 
came alarmed for his safety, threw the great 
Seal of England into the Thames, and ran 
away to France and took his head off with 
him, an example well and highly proper to 
be followed by any ruler in like case offend- 
infj. 

THE IMFEACIIMENT I.IVES THOrC.H CONGRESS DIES. 

Another question has also been much 
mooted : Whe.her a Parliament presenting 
an impeachment being prorogued or dissolved, 
the impeachment and irial might be carried 
on by a new I'lrliament; or in oiher words, 
if a Coiiiiress end by it^ limitation a new 
Congress can prosecute an impeachment be- 



11 



gun by a former Congress. In enrly time?, 
when llie favorites of the King weie im- 
peached, the iMonnrrh, losave his creatures, 
used lo dis.>olve the Parliament to put an end 
to the prosecution ; but afterward it was le- 
solved and finally determined in the case of 
Warren Hastings, that the impeachment did 
not die with the Parliament. 

We thus have carefully examined the con- 
stitutional remedy for usurpation and official 
misconduct. We have seen that it is aptly 
fitted to be, and ought to be applied at the 
nearest approach of danger or wrong: without 
wailing till they have ripened into outrage 
and disaster. 

IS ANDHEAV JOHNSON GUILTY OF IMPEACHABLE 
OFFENCES ? 

The only inquiry that remains to us i? 
whether common fame or current history 
charges any officer of the government with 
declarations or acts dangerous to the perma- 
nency of our insiituiions and the liberties of 
the people, so that thoy are satisfied ihat for 
the "general welfare of the United States'' 
this remedy ought to be applied, as well as to 
meet the beginnings of wrong in high places 
as to punish the ofTender as a warning to all 
others daring thus to sin. Because if the 
judgment and conscience of the loyal people 
of the country are net satisfied of the guilt 
accused and the rishteousness of his punish- 
ishment, he becomes not a criminal but a 
martyr, whatever may be the offii'ial verdict 
againsl him. And indeed in thi^, as in all 
other governmental action, the represenia- 
lives of the people should onlv echo their 
thought and do their behest. 

What, then, is the judgment of the peo- 
ple upon the official conduct of the " Vice- 
President of the United States discharg- 
ing ilie powers and duties devolved upon 
him by the death " by assassination of the 
President, such being the exact conslituiional 
definition of his present office ? 

In this inquiry let us proceed upon the 
"evidence" by which he might be im- 
;")e?iched : well-grounded common fame. 

As one of the people, then, I charge that 
Andrew Johnson has cfirnmitled high crimes 
md misdemeanors in office, in many partic- 
ulars, but which may be grouped under 
these general charges : 



DRUNKENNESS IN OrFlCE. 

1st, Therefore I charge Andrew John.inn, 
as well while Vn-e President, as while dis- 
charging the powers atid duties of Pre.>ident 
of the Uniied Slates, with dei^rading atid 
debising, even while tiiking the oath of 
office, the station and diyniiy of the office of 
Vice Piesident, and that of President, by 
indecently exhibiiinjj and exposing himself 
upon official and public occasions in a state 
of drunkennesi!, by the voluntary use of in- 
toxicating liquors, lo the great scandal and 
disgrace of the whole people of the United 
Slates and the government thereof. 

EVIDENCE OF THE CH4.RGE OF DKUNKENNESS. 

As to the specification and evidence of the 
first charge of public drunkenn(ss, if com- 
mon uncontradicted fame speaks truly, and 
that it does in this instance, the blush at 
shame which mantles the cheek of everv 
true American wlien the orcurrence is men- 
tioned, is the highest guaranty — then every 
Senator who witnessed the disgraceful stam- 
mering tongue of the Vice President as he 
mumbled his oath of office, and slobberv^d the 
Holy Book with a drunken kiss, will be at 
once the witness and judge, and to other 
like public and disgraceful exhibitions al- 
most every depot and station master between 
Washington and St. Louis can give evi- 
dence. 

Indeed, it were Christian, kindly charity 
to believe, thai the speeches made on those 
occasions had that exi'use, because then they 
would be errors of the head, wherein an 
" enemy had been pul to steal away the 
brain," and might be reformed ; but a heart 
that could send forth sich utterances, spe- 
cially that made by Andrew Johnson at Ni- 
figara, wherein he said he was glad that by 
the Consiiiuiion he was made President, can 
never be made belter savs by the omnipotence 
of Divine Grace. 

That I may do Mr. J.ihnson no wrong, I 
will give his words as reported on that occa- 
sion : " The victory was obiained and I was 
" made Vice President of ihe United Slates. 
" Can't you see the frradation comes along 
" regularly ? And then by the Constitution 
"of the country I was made President. / 
" <7W glad (if it."" 

Is Andrew Johnson guilty or not guilty 



12 



of ihis charge and specification ? llow say 
you, fellow citizens, was he drunk or sober ? 

INDECENT, INFLAMMATOUY ANO DAN0ER0O8 
HAKANOCES, 

'JimI. I ctiarje Andrew Johnson, Vice 
Pfesuleni, discharging the powers and duties 
of the Presiileni of the United Stales, and 
swirn faithfully to execute the same, with 
officiiilly and publicly making declarations 
and iiifla'iimalory harani^ues, indecent and 
unbecoinino and in derogation of his high 
ofTii-e, daniieroiis to the permanency of our 
rejiublifan form of {roveriiment, and with 
intent and design to eX'-iie the ridicule, fear, 
hatred and contempt of the people auainsi 
the leiiislative and judicial departments 
thereof. 

BVIDENCE OF DSOKaCEFCL A> D DANGEROUS 
BPIiECHES. 

Tiip second charge of making indecent and 
iiifl uniiialnry harangues, degradinu the po- 
sition as 'he Executive head of the mo>t civ- 
iliz-'d and intellectual nation in ih? world, 
has manv specifications, and is sustained bv 
much evidence. The obnoxious declarations 
of Mr. Johnson are all of them public speech- 
es made either to committers or from the 
rostrum, in def'^nce of his policy, or attacks 
upon individuals or other branches of the 
Qoverninent. They may be divided into 
two classes, the indecent and the danjier- 
oii- and inflammatory. Can there be any- 
thing more indecent and decrading to the 
office of Presiil"iit of the United Slates 
than the ?xhibition made by Andrew John- 
s'tn oil the 22nd of February last in that 
speech, fnr which there is, unfnriunately for 
the honor of the country, not the apology 
that ho was drunk. His cliaracierizition of 
the editor of a leading jnunial, who certain- 
ly up to that time had dealt with him in 
c •urieoiis language, as a '• dead duck." The 
tone, the manner, the occasion, are all crim- 
inally beneath the dicniiv of the office he oc- 
cupies. A'^ain, on that most un.ippv funer- 
al journev, his vimperative denunciations by 
name of some of ihe best and purest of the 
land ; calling a Senator, a Representative, 
and a gifted orator, each and all of them true 
and tried pniiints b.'ynnd doubt or cavil of 
any sound mind, "traitors," and thrvatening 
them with death, to rai^e a vul^^ar laugh. — 



His threats at St. Louis to " kick out" of of- 
fice whoever should oppose his policy ; his 
vulvar atiack, at the saiiie place, upm a law 
which he himself had sijined, appealing to 
prejudice a<rainst the blacks by anjuine thai 
Congress had given the negro soldier (SIOO) 
one hundred dollars bounty, and to ttie white 
soldier only fifty dollais. His perversion of 
the holy Scriptures and blasphemv at Phila- 
delphia, by enunciating from the balcony of 
the hotel to a depiutation of tailors, (hat the 
" Great Father of us all was tlie first tailor," 
accompanied by the announcement that " he 
(lid not want in be thought facetious in so 
asserting." Oatraging ilie religious sense 
of the whole community bv comparing the 
radical to the Savior, using his holiest name, 
never lo be breathed by a Christian public 
man save with veneration, as the diunken 
catchword of a blackguard harangue, and so 
on and on ad nauseam. 

Has a shocked, outraged, humbled, sham- 
ed and indignant people no remedy t'or such 
disgusting humiliation of their pride of 
country and National selt'-respeci ? Must 
they endure it two years and more Ion er ? 
A like record made again-tany other high 
ofTicer of the United States to any former 
President, would he not have removed him 
for cause ? Shall the spectacle remaio lor- 
ever unrebuked of the President debasing; 
himself so as jiistiv to draw from the crowd 
witnessing the exhibition, such expressions 
as ' Go it, Andy"! " Keepyour temper, An- 
dy" ! •' Don't get mad, -Andy"! And for 
the President to reply, "I left my dignity at 
Washington"! May not the people >av you 
have quit the dignitv of your oflice once, — 
you shall never again resume it? Are the 
decent, respeclal)le and intelligent people of 
the country always to have their cheeks burn 
with shame whenever such conduct of their 
Chief is discussed, because the remedy has 
never been applied or an example made ? Is 
the hiqiiest ollice in the land, the Presidency, 
to which it is our proudest boast the humblest 
American boy may aspire, to be so degraded 
that to any well-bred boy it will not seem worth 
the aspirali'Ui; and yet to be neither remedy 
or pnnishmeni? No — so lonjr as the con- 
servatu'e remedy of impeachment exists, the 
American pe.iple will preserve the Presider;- 
tial office honurcd by Washington by punish- 



18 



ing this its degredation as the highest of all 
misdemeanors. 

We have seen that the great danger to 
liberty is to fanuliariza the people to the 
thodfrlit of ihe loss of it, so that the publi. 
mind \i prt^pared by demoralizaiion to subniii 
tothefact without shock. Sohislory teache- 
that whenever any ailempl has been made 
by a desp')t to destroy the Leoj-laiive or 
popular branch ot the Government, he ha^ 
always begun by decrying and making ii 
odiou-^. 

Therefore we find Andrew Johnson receiv- 
ing a Coinmiiiee of the Philadelphia Con- 
vention on ihe 18th of August, at ihe head 
of which was a Senator from Maryland, o' 
thnt same Congress, with the declaration thai 
" We have seen hanging on the verjie of the 
Government, as it were, a body calling it-ell 
and assuminiT to be the Conwress of the CJn- 
ited when it was in fact but a Congress of a 
part of the States ; and we have seen such a 
Congress pketknuing to be for the Union, 
when every single step it took was to perpet- 
uate dissolution and to make disruption per- 
manent." This was followed by denuncia- 
tions ot Congress, "as a bodv of disutiion- 
its " an " unconstitutional, ^omincf^ring and 
tyrannical Congress" and so on with every 
phrase of haired, contempt and ridicule that 
could be used as descriptive, accomDanied 
with sugirestions as to the Acts and Laws 
enacted by Congress; which if just and true 
would have convinced the people that the 
legi^l.itive branch of the Government was 
unworthy of their countenance or support, 
and the laws passed by it unconstitutional 
and void. Is it any defence to sav that these 
assertions were untrue, and so ridiculmslv 
untrue thai nobody believed them I'ld there- 
fore they did no mischief? Does not their 
falsity make the strongest element of the 
grcit crime of uttering them ? If the Chief 
E.xecutive can thus, without check, assail 
Congress (and it is needless to say that ii 
WIS never done before) will not the precedent 
avail some abler and more popular, but no 
more wicked man to successfully depose Con- 
gress, and make himself the Dictator, which 
Mr. Johnson thought it possible himself to 
be ? 

The intent and motive of these declara- 
tions areoTvious when taken in connection 



with other speeches made during tho sarre 
JMirney. It w:i< to alarm the peop'e hi^ to 
he cimduct of Congres-. to prevent moitilier- 
fiom beinif elected who would stand 0()|)0miI 
to Mr, Johnson. What else could be il i; 
■ )lj-ct of such declarations as this: 'if 
\u\i do not stay Congress by your siiflrHL" s, 
you will have civil war — not a war between 
he North and the South, but an internecii.'e 
war." "I called upon your Congress that is 
rying to break up the government," and 
~o over and over again in every form of t x- 
pression, Wiih what hope was this done? 
So that if a majoriiy of rebel sympath Z' is 
were chosen he might declare them in co'- 
j inction with the representatives of the 
South the Congress, to the exclusion of 
he loyal majoriiy ? What motive for this 
course, you may ask, could Mr, John^Oll 
have? He everywhere declared that he had 
filled all the offices under the constiiutio-i 
that man could fill. The outcroppinss nf 
lis mind peep from his mouth. " Why," i;o 
s lys. "with the Freedman's Bureau with 
agents and satraps in every town and school 
iistrict, with fifty million of dollars in n.y 
pocket, and the army at my back, I could 
(iroclaim myself Dictator." This was at 
Cincinnati ; but at Nia ara Mr. SewiinJ, 
subtle and wily, had foreshadow(»d the same 
proposition in these words: " The Pre>iilei t 
has struck the key note of the political ;ir- 
gument to-day. 'The Union must not, 
shall not be divided.' The question is I e- 
tween the President and the Congressman " 
Vlore boldly at Bitile Creek, Michigan, Mr. 
Seward says: "Those that want thirty--i>c 
States say so." [Voices respond — Ay! ny IJ 
•Do you want Andrei' Johnson Pre>idenc 
or King ?" Mr. Seward never says any- 
thing without a purpose. What was ihit 
purpose ? That the loval people of Michig m 
\ho heard it understood what he means was 
evident, for they refused to hear him any 
further, 

THE JUDICIARY ATTACKED. 

Nor is Congress the only branch of the 
G ivernment attacked by the Preside t. 
The Judiciary also was to be "made odious." 
Therefore, when the loyal people of Cle^c- 
and put the very pertinent question to M . 
Johnson — "Why do.i't you hang JeflDivis ? ' 
what true man was not shocked at the an- 



u 



.c^ver ? — "Have you not pot tlie Aftorney 
CJcMiornl? Who is youi{ Chikf Jistick aviio 

HAS lUFUSKD TO S^IT ON THK Tl.lAL?" ]f it 

is true tluU the C(i icf Jii>tice has refused to 
s:t on tlie trial of a criminal, however creat, 
when il was his duty i-o to do, he ouglit lo 
le iinpeflched ; and if the public chari;e of 
Mr, Joi.nson against the Judiciary is false, 
then it is malicious, and he oiiLht to be re- 
moved from an office which ^ives him posi- 
tion falsely to malign the Judiciaiy of the 
Uniied Mates by accusing its Chief Justice 
of dereliction of duly. 

bllALL, WE "WAIT TILL CONGRI.SS IS DEPOSED 
BEFORE WE IMPEACH HIM ? 

I have examined ihc specifications under 
this charg; with a irreater extent than I pro- 
pose to do the others because in the ap- 
piehension of some minds some overt pct 
must be committed before 'he President can 
be impeached. What! Shall we wait till 
he has actually deposed Conotess before we 
impeach him? That being done what body 
is to be his accuser or trier? Shall we loiter 
till a wicked " humble individual" has ac- 
tually ove. turned our Governi; ent, and "by 
his s;itr;ips and bacWd by the army" made 
himself Dictator, and then attempt impeach- 
ment? 

SHALL JOHNSON KE KING? 

No! fellow ciuzens, let us proceed to 
meet the beoinnings of mischief by the le- 
gal, conservative, radical and constitutional 
methofl of impeachment. Lei the people 
leach the incumbent of the olfioe of Presi- 
dent that he is not such stufT as Dictators are 
made of — and if we are to have a King, he 
will not be King Andrew the Indecent. For 
his blasphetnous exhibition.-', his debasement 
of his hii/h offii.'e, his revolutionary, inflama- 
tory and unbecoming attacks upon the Con- 
fjress of the people; his false accusations 
ai^ainst the Jiidieiary ; his insult to the vir- 
tue :ind intelligence of the D'^ople, in daring 
to breathe the thought that they would >ub- 
mii llieir liberties to any Dictator or tyrant, 
and lea-t of all to him ; of such hii»h crimes 
agairot the pi.op'e and misdemeanors n<Taii)>t 
the country. How say you, fellow cit zeiis, 
is Andrew Johnson guilty or not guil y ? 

USUKI'ATtOX OP LEGISLATIVE POWEK8. 

3rd. I charge AnJrew Johnson with 
wickedly, tyannically and unconstitution- 



ally as Chief Executive officer usurping the 
lasvfol ri'jhis and powers of the Congress of 
the United Slates. 

EVIDENCE OF USURPATION 0? POWER. 

Upon the third charge of usurping the 
powers of Congress, the specifications are 
many and the evidence open and notoiious. 
Time will pernait to glance only at one or 
two o( them. 

ALL CIVIL GOVERNMENT WAS DESTROYED. 

When the last rebel soldier had surren- 
d?red lo our victorious antiies and armed re- 
sistance had ceased, what was the exact state 
of things in the revolted States? An insur- 
rection hid ripened into a public territorial 
war, rfcojnized by the executive, legislative 
and Judicial Department*, between the Uni- 
ted States and iho forces of the revolted 
States. All the citizens, then, in tiioso 
States, had become by their own, and the 
acts of their communities, and the effect of 
of riomestic violence and war, armed public 
enemies; and in the iai guage of Andrew 
John>on's proclamation — "rebellion in its 
revolutionary procrress had deprived those 
States of all civil Government." 

THE REBELS HAD BECOJIE PAROLED PRISONERS 

OF WAR, WITH WHOM JOHNSON COULD 

NOT MAKE PEACE. 

Armed hostilities had ceased. Their 
people had beco ne disarmed public enemies, 
surrendered as paroled pri>oners of war. If 
we look at them as belligerents we bad cap- 
tured them and all their rights. If we look 
at them as rebellious subjects, they had for- 
feited their lives, their property and all their 
ri"'hts by treason and rebellion. Whichever 
way you take it, they had lost all, we had 
sained all, by capiure in war and from for- 
feiture by crime. By whom then was peace 
lo be concluded, hostiliiies ceasing ? By the 
President alone? Ceriainly not. A peace 
in a foreij^n war cannot be made by the 
President wiihoui two-lhiids of the Senate. 
Much less in a civil war, where the duties of 
rebellion'! citizens and the rights which 
ouaht to be restored to them inusl be settled 
by law. Who could enact any plan, policy, 
or method of leorganizing these compiered 
territories " deprived of all civil Govern- 
ment"? Congress alone. 



15 



HE USURPS THE POWER OF FORMING STATE 
CONSTITUTIONS. 

Andrew Johnson altempted it. He appointed 
rebels Governors for seven of ihein. By 
whairiglit^ He directed (hose Governors 
to " prescribe rnles and reynhuions for con- 
veninjT a convention " composed of dsieijares 
to be ch( sen by that portion of the people 
of said State who nre loyal to the United 
Slates and rto others for the porpose of alier- 
ing and ainendini:! the Constitution thereof." 
iSiricily and graniinaiically construed he 
thus ordered a convention to alter the Con- 
stitution of the United States; but we must 
not expect too much of a Head of the Nation 
who did not know that Jarnes the Second 
did not lose his head. Takingr ji however 
as meant, by what law, constitutional or 
other, was all this pretended to be done? I 
venture to say as a lawyer that no single 
provision of law or constitution can be 
found that will give color of justification to 
this unheard of proceediire. Looking- al 
Mr. J(jhnson's proclamation for reoriranizing 
North Carolina, I find his claim of power to 
do it in these wordy: — " Rebellio i has in 
, its revolutionary progress deprived the peo- 
ple of the State of North Carolina of all civil 
Government, and whereas it becomes neces- 
sary and prnper to carry out and enforce the 
obligations of the United States to the peo- 
ple of North Carolina in securing to them 
the enj lyment of a republican form of Gov- 
ernment," I, Andrew Johnson, do, etc. etc. 

CONGRESS 3IUST MAKE LAWS TO CARRY OUT 
ALu POWEKS. 

If one had time to be e.xact in criticism i' 
CO lid be said that there is no constitutional 
obligation to the people of North Carolina to 
secur-e them in the enjoyment of a republi- 
can form of Government. There is such 
obligation to the State. But granting the 
obligation — on whom does it rest? On the 
United States, — not on the President. 
Whose duty is it to provide for the carrying 
out and enforcing this obligation ? " Con- 
gress," says the first article of the Constitu- 
tion, " shall have power to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into exe- 
cution all powers vested by this Con^litulion 
in the Government of the United States, or 
IN ANv Department or OFFICER there- 
of.' 



UE DID NOT GIVE THE STATE A REPUBLICAN 
GOVKR.MME^T. 

But did Andrew Johnson give tf> the people 
government republican in f.,rm ? \V'h;it is a 
republican government ? It is that under 
whif^h a majority of the people can take part 
in electing tlieir own rulers and enacting 
their own laws. Excluding the necroes, as 
the proclamation does — vvill anybody pre- 
tend that a majority of the white people 
even of North Carolina were loyal Jlay ii9, 
1865, when the rebel soldiers had just got 
home ? 

HE HAS NO RIGHT TO SAY WHO SHALL OR 
SHALL NOT VOTE. 

By what right does the President by ex- 
ecutive order or proclamation say who shall 
or shall not vote in any part of the United 
States ? Napoleon, beside Andrew Johnson, 
is the only ruler in the present century who 
has dared do that — and he let everybody, 
black and white, vote. 

ALL HIS ACTION IS USURPATION. 

The whole action of the executive in this 
behalf was a most palpable and flagrant 
usurpation of the po^er of Congress; acts 
which even the Judges of the Southern 
States have declared unconstitutional, al- 
though done in their behalf. 

The wicked object and intent of this usurp- 
ation is seen in the fact that Andrew Johnson 
has ever since fought and denounced Con- 
gress for not permitting its consummation, 
although by its fruits undoing almost all that 
WIS done by the war in bringing the South 
to such a proper sp rit of subjutiation as to 
make a truly loyal man safe there in Lis 
home. 

HE HAS DISPOSED OF MILLIONS AGAINST LAW. 

Again, the Constitution says that Congress 
shall " make rules concerning captures on 
land and water," "to dispose of and make 
all needful rules and re^julations respecting 
the territortj or otlier property of the United 
States." Yet, disregardinii these constitu- 
tional provisions, Andrew Johnson, by exec- 
utive orders, has disposed of millions upon 
milions of property of the United States cap- 
tured in war, such as vessel--, steamboats, 
railroads, cotton, tobacco, and this, too, in 
defiance of laws of CoDgress which required 



16 



him to put such property into the Treasury 
rit' 'Up Uiiiteil States to aid in reducing our 
(Ki'rl'Urdenud taxation. 

IIK ILLEGALLY KKSTORES ROBERT LEE HIS 
I'KOI'EUTV. 

The tele<?raph now inrorm* us that 
fuch capturt-d property is restored to un- 
]i:iiloiied as well as' to pardoned rebels, 
a> wirness the return to Kobert E. Lse, 
ot the properly caplurpd at ArlinL!lon in 
ih it advance in Mav, 18G1, wherein the ual- 
li'it soldier and boyfriend of Linrohi — 
Ei,L>woHTH Was rnnrdored. Andrew John- 
M'u ciiuld with tlie same <on*titiiiinnal riglit 
haiu given the bones and a.-hes of llii-^, the 
n blest first iriariyr, to the iir>t grtat unpar- 
doned traitor of the rebelhon ! And he niay, 
t.io. by the same right, give bark the land oi 
Ailintiton, captured at the same time, the 
ti iw sacred repository of rairiy, many thou- 
sitdsofour noble dead, if you do dot slop 
him in his unconstitutional, mad career. 

Hut time admoni-hes nie that I can only 
gl in -e at but not argue these several charges. 

COKRUI'T USE OF THE APPOINTING POWER. 

4lh. I charge Andrew Johnson with 
n ickjdlv and corruptly u<in(j and abusing 
the con>titutiona! power of the President ol 
rioniinatini! to office and fillirifj vacancies in 
office during the racess of the Senate, and 
removing from office with intent and design 
ti) undermine, overthrow and evade the 
puwer of advising and consenting to appoint- 
ments to office vested in the Senate by the 
I onstituiion, and for the farther corrupt pur- 
pose of controling the freedom of the elec- 
tion by the people, of members of the House, 
in order to put the House of Representative? 
in the hands of men lately ifi rebellion 
against or evilly di.^posed toward the govern- 
ment. 

Tllli: EVIDE.NCE OF HIS ABUSE OF THE APPOINT- 
ING POWER. 

The fourth charge of improperly and wick- 
edly using the pou'er of appointment is so 
patent, so flagrant and so universal that a 
M ii|de statement of it is sufficient for con- 
Y e ion. 

I h'TC is no true lf)yal man \vlio«c jodo- 
merit is not i^^tructed upon this (dlence. 
'Ihore have been more than two thousand 



two hundred Postmasters alone, since the 
firs' day of July last, removed from office in 
obelieiice to tl)u declaration of Andrew 
Johnson that he would " kick out" all tliose 
who did no' oppose Congress. What Con- 
gnss ? Why, the representatives of the 
peop'e ! Thus more than two thousand of 
the ^ervants of the people in a sing'e De- 
partr^eni have been removed from the ier- 
vce of the people I ecau-e they would not 
aid another accidental s-ei vant ol the people 
in opposini? and thwarting the constitutional 
acts of the Repre.-entaiives of the people. 

Cun it be preientied. short of insaniiy, that 
puch a use of the apnointini; power is proper 
and constim-ional, or that the Pre>ident who 
does it in plain opposition to the jieople ou^jht 
nr,i to he removed from his power to do more 
mischief ? 

]5ut siill worse. The Cons'itu'ion restricts 
the power of " Appoinitnent " to the Senate, 
jjiving to the Presrit-nt the power of iVojniwa/iow 
only when the S-nate is in session, ieavini; with 
him to till vacar eies whith may happen during 
the recess by giving commissions which expire 
with the end of ihe next session of the Senate. 

Mr. Johnson has under this provision, in more 
than thirty instances, ;>ut men in otfice at the 
end of the session who had been refused ap- 
{)oir.tmeni by the Senate, aii(i some of them 
twice and thrice over. The vacancies happened 
during the session and not in vacation ; a- d by 
this means he de[)riveil ilie Senate uf al! control 
over appointments which the Constitution gives 
it. 

What was Ihe ohjpct of this usurpation ? To 
overthrow the loyal m»j"rily of the Senate, 
To enable the President to force upon it twenty 
members from rebel States. 

This prac'ice is attempted to be justified by 
the course o( General .Jackson in removing from 
office upon the cnminj; in of his ailininisir'ition. 
But the theory of Jack'on was this; that the 
Executive hoad of the Government having been 
changed by the vote of the people electin<» him- 
self, ihat therefore the people desired all exec- 
utive officers to t)e changed in order that the ex- 
ecutive branch of the (T0\ernment might be in 
harmony in all its psrls. There was good sense 
in this theory of removsl ; but it was not carried 
out by Jackson by usurping the constitutional 
powers of the Senate. In his case, .Vlr. Johnson 
has removed the cfficera who were put in by 
Lincoln at th** same time and u[)nn the same 
pialfoim of prinii[)les '.vith himself. Had he 
wailed as Jiukson did till the people hod spoken, 
he would have removed hut few (or 0[)posii g his 
policy : but it is notorious thai his removals were 
made to bend the people to bis will. 



17 



Fellow citizens, ia it not 'time that these re- 
movals from office without causp, and to pamper 
the ambition or gratify the passions of any one 
man, be stopped ? It will never be done if we 
let Mr. Johnson's precedent go unpunished. 

ABUSE OF PARDONING POWER. 

5th. I charge Andrew Johnson with im- 
properly, wickedly and corruptly using and 
abusing the Constitutional power of pardons, 
for offences against the United States, and 
in order to bring traitors and rebels into pla- 
ces of honor, trust and profit under the Gov- 
ernment ot the United Slates, and to screen 
whole classes of criminals from ihe penalties 
of their crimes against the laws thereof. 

As to the fifth charge — the abuse of the power 
of pardons. While the fact is admitted that 
thousands of rebels have been pardoned for their 
crimes without investigation, and solely upon the 
recommendation of other rebels, yet it is said, as 
the Constitution gives the President the unlimited 
power to pardon, why may he not pardon as 
many as he pleases without doing any legal 
•wrong? The answer is obvious. There are 
many powers in Government right if properly 
used; criminal if used wrongfully or with a 
wrong motive. Let me illustrate. Almost 
every Governor of a State has the unlimited 
power of pardon. Suppose a Governor in mere 
wantonness should pardon and set free at once 
all the convicts in the Penitentiary. Would any 
man doubt that that would be a great crime for 
which he might be impeached ? Yet there is no 
statute law against it. Suppose be should par- 
don one murderer that he might revenge himself 
upon his enemy. Would any one doubt that such 
pardon was a crime because of the motive, al- 
though the Governor had the power to do it? 
Now what has been the motive of Andrew Jobn- 
60a for bis indiscriminate pardons. It was to 
restore property to rebels which by the confisca- 
tion laws belonged to the United States, or to 
enable rebels to hold office and thus to concili- 
ate them to himself. No belter illustration of 
the design of this exercise of the pardoning 
power can be given than the pardon of John T. 
Monroe, that he might be Mayor of New Orleans. 

It bore its appropriate fruit — riot, bloodshed 
and murder. 

APPOINTING REBELS TO POWER AGAINST LAW. 

6ih. 1 charge Andrew Johnson with i<now- 
ingly and wilfully violating the constitution- 
ally enacted laws of the United States by ap- 
pointing disloyal men to office, and illegally 
and without right, giving to them the emolu- 
ments of such office from the treasury, well 
knowing the appointees to be ineligible to 
ofBce. 



Ttie sixth charge, of knowingly appointing 
men to office who were ineligible, is supported by 
instances almost without number. For Mr. John- 
son appointed seven piovisional Governors — not 
one of whom could take the oath prescribed by 
law for every United States officer, that he had 
never aided the rebellion, and Mr. Johnson must 
have known that they could not hold office, be- 
cause he had pardoned most of them as rebels, 
in order they might bold their office. But, far 
worse, there was no law for appointing anybody, 
loyal or disloyal, to such offices, because they 
were not established by law. It was a felony to 
take any money out of the Treasury to pay their 
salaries. The money was paid out of the con- 
tingent fund of the War Department, and thus 
usurpation evaded the law. Was not the money 
the property of the United States all the same ? 
Allow this to go on unrebuked, and the next 
Usurper will see to it that all the money of the 
United States is a contingent fund for his partic- 
ular use. 

But to crown all this, hundreds of offices were 
filled at the South in the several departments by 
men who were known rebels. When Congress 
enquired into these acts, what do you suppose 
was the answer ? Why that there were no loyal 
men in the districts to fill the office. What an 
excuse ! If there were no loyal men, what the 
need of the office at all for disloyal men ? Must 
the office be filled against law? Were there not 
hundreds of maimed and wounded soldiers, 
black and white, who could have been sent 
South, who would have filled those offices a pre- 
cious sight better than Andrew Johnson does the 
one he has dropped into ? 

EEFUSINO TO EXECUTE THE LAWS. 

7lh. I charge Andrew Johnson with know- 
ingly and wilfully neglecting and refusing 
to execute and carry out the constitutional 
laws of Congress in the insurrectionary- 
States in order to favor and encourage men 
lately in rebellion and in arms against the 
United States to the oppression and injury 
of the loyal and true citizens of such States. 

To the seventh charge, that he has refused to 
execute the laws, is too notoriously and sadly 
true to be controverted. I will detain you by 
noticing an instance or two only. Congress pass- 
ed a law that all property used in aid of the Re- 
bellion should, when captured, be prize of war, 
and thereby the property of the United States. 
That law, so just and proper, is still unrepealed. 
We all remember what tremendous aid was given 
to the armies ot the Rebellion by the energetic 
use of the Southern railroads in transporting 
troops, most of them being run by the companies 
that owned them. These roads were all cap- 
tured, butj every one of them has been given 



IB 



back to their ■ oel owners, although the inter- 
ests of the Northern btockholders in idem had 
been contisealed by the rebels. 

Thus mi»ny millions of properly of the United 
States have been given away by the Executive 
against law. The question is not whether it were 
best to coiitiscale this properly, — that is for Con- 
gress to determine, and toey did so by passing 
thi^ law. The vital inquiry is whether the Exec 
utive usurping the power of Congress, can nullify 
the law. 

Again, Congress passed a law that the property 
of certain leaders of the Rebellion, whenever it 
came into our possession, should be confiscated 
to the use of the armies of the United States. 
That law is unrepealed. Yet Andrew Johnson, 
sworn to execute the laws which made it his du- 
ty to confi^cate this proper'y, in the words fol- 
Jowing " It shall be the duty of the President to 
seize and use the property aforesaid for the pur- 
poses aforesaid," — has slopped all process of con 
tiscation or seizure, although in his proclamation 
of restoration he orders the Attorney General to 
have the confiscation Uws executed. Thus show- 
ing that he knew the law but wiltully defies it. 

Again, Congress ordered a direct tax ot twen- 
ty millions. We of the loyal North paid our 
portion of it in addition to our other burdens. 
T'he Siuthern portion was made a lien upon their 
property and land, and in many Stales the 
Tax Commissioners were proceeding to collect 
the tax according to law, when they were stopped 
by Executive order, and the taxes remain un- 
collected to this day. If these laws ought not 
to be executed, let them be repealed ; hut while 
in force let them be executed, or the officer fail- 
ing in his duly be punished for it. 

I have yet, however, to see the message of 
Andrew Johnson to Congress urging the rejjcal 
of eilher of these laws. 

Once more. The Civil Rights Bill was passed 
by Congress over the veto. Do we not hear 
daily of wrong and outrage and murder done 
upon the freedmen and Union men in every re- 
bellious State ] Have we not heard from otHcial 
reports that in Texas a doztn murders daily of 
negroes are taking placa without check, and that 
five hundred inrliciments for murders are still 
untried in that Slate alone. 

lias tiiere not bet;n a scire of convictions by 
competent Courts for fnlony and murder sent up 
to the Exectiiive, and been before him for 
months, and are yet unexecuted, or pardoned; 
Hnd for the murder of no colored man has a 
while min, although convicted, been allowed to 
be executed by Andrew Johnson. 

Military orders protecting loyal men have 
been deemed inoperative, because of the Civil 
liights Mill, and that is made a dead letter by 
the cl'igs of the Extcutive, uutil Sheridao as- 



serts that United States troops " ARE UNSAFE IN 

RKCONSTKUCTED JOUNSONIAN TEXAS OUTSIDE OF 
TIIfclR OWN CAMPS." And yet with all this out- 
rage, crime, anarchy and murder unchecked, 
men doubt whether the cause and occasion of it 
all in the Tresideniial chair ought (o be im- 
peached ! 

COMPLICITY IN THE NEW OKLEANS MA88ACUE. 

8th. 1 charge Andrew Johnson with un- 
lawfully, corruptly and wickedly ronfedera- 
ting and conspiring with one John T. Mon- 
roe, late a rebel against the (iovernment of 
the United States, pardoned by himself that 
he might hold office, and oiher evil diposed 
persons, trailers and rebels, as well pardon- 
ed as unpardoned, to prevent, hinder and 
disperse a lawful, peaceable and rightful 
meeting and Convention of loyal citizens of 
the United States, then assembled in New 
Orleans to consider their conslilutional rights 
and privileges, and to submit to ihe j'ldg- 
menl of the people of the State of Louisiana 
certain proposiiions of Amendment to the 
Constitution of thai Stale for iheir discussion 
and action as such Convention might right- 
fully do. And in pursuance of such unlaw- 
ful, corrupt and wicked con?piracy, Andrew 
Johnson did incite, move and permit John 
T. Monroe and his rebellious and wicked as- 
sociates to disperse and break up such law- 
ful Convention and the members thereof to 
kill, assassinate and murder. 

The eighth charge, complicity in Ihe Massacre 
at New Orleans, has been so lecently and fuily 
discussed all over the Loyal States, and so fully 
shown officially by the report of the Military 
Commission and publication of despatches, that 
I need but remind you of one or two facts to fix 
the guilt. 

That Monroe was pardoned, so he could be 
Mayor. 

That he was in teb'graphic and written corre- 
spondence with tne Executive before the massa- 
cre in relation to it. 

That the Executive communicates with him 
and the Attorney Ger.eral, a pardoned rebel offi- 
cer, instead of the Governor of the State, or the 
Union General in command. 

The troojis are placed at the disposal of these 
conspirators, and miliiiiry orders are transmitted 
through pardoned rebels to a loyal oflioer. To 
conceal his participation in the crime, Andrew 
Johnson faUely charges it upon Congress. 

lie publishes garbled despatches of (ieneral 

Sheridan, giving account of the offair, alter he 

' has enduavorid by a carefully worded, arllul 



19 



leading despatch from bimRelf to cause that Gen- 
eral to throw the blame on the innocent. 

Alihough five months have pa*8ed, and the 
guilty assiissins have been made known to An- 
drew Johnson through many otticial reports, he 
has taken no steps to have them arrested or pun- 
ished, and murderers walk abroad in noon-day 
untouched. 

And why 1 Because the Chief Executive dare 
not touch them, lest their di.^closures should im- 
plicate those confessedly in communication with 
them before the deed. 

Fellow-citizens, how say you 1 Oija;ht not the 
New Orleans massacre, the murder of Dostie, 
the assassination of Horton, to be investigated 
before the highest Court in the land with the 
highest criminal at the bar ? 

OBJECTIONS TO IMPEACHMENT NOW. 

What is to be urged why these grave charges 
shall not be tried anil punished if found true I 
We are told, because Andrew Johnson will now, 
after the rebuke of the elections, make conces 
sions to Congress, and will make no more re- 
movals from office. Will that take away from 
us the dissrHce of his public speeches and acts? 
Will that atone for the insult to the American 
people of threatening to make himself Dictator, 
and with civil internecine war'? Will that put 
back into the Treasury the millions taken from 
it against law? Will tl.at restore the Southern 
States to that fit condition for reorganization in 
which Andrew Johnson found them, and which 
too he has destroyed ? Will that restore to life 
the unavenged, murdered freedmen and Union 
men in the South'? Will that give back to his 
widowed wife, the assassinated Dostie, or put 
again in the pulpit, to preach the holy word, the 
murdered Horton ? 

LET us NOT BE DECEIVED AGAIN. 
It is said Mr. Johnson will, to g<?t universal 
amnesty, now be willing to advocate universal 
sufTiage. Most offenders against the laws would 
be, but does that purge his offences against free 
institutions and free government'? As soon as 
the Great Victory was won over the Rebellion, 
scheming politicians plotted to give up all that 
we had gained by arms, and the spirit of Rebel- 
lion grew rampant. Now that the people have 
won a great triumph by the ballot, let not the 
fruits of victory be lost by a new set ot political 
manoeuvres, and the reins of power again 
given to those who have betrayed us. It was 
then said we must give up all we had won be- 
cause we had extorted by arms universal free- 
dom : now it is claimed that we must yield all 
that justice dem.ands because by the ballot we 
have forced universal siilTrage. Must this gov- 
ernment ever be carried on upon a wretched sys- 
tem of swappings and compromises ? May it 



never be administered upon the great principles 
of truth and justice, to the " end that it may be 
a government of laws and not men." 

TUliRE IS NO DANGER FKUM THE ARMY. 

But it is said that if an impeachment is at- 
temptad, the Executive will resist by the uid of 
the army and navy. Then he will add treason 
to his other offences, and if he can successfully 
oppose the people in the exercise of their consti- 
tutional tights, then our liberties are indeed al- 
ready gone forever. 

If by the forms and in the manner prescribed 
by the Constitution, this government cannot ex- 
amine, iry and punish any criminals, however 
high in office, it is not worth preserving. 

But let the timid fear not and the weak quake 
not. The Army and Navy are loyal and true, 
and will obey no illegal, treasonable orders from 
anybody; but if it were possible for them to do 
otherwise, they would be swept away before the 
majesty of a people rising as in '61 to preserve 
a Station's life. 

I have been told, indeed, that the Secretary 
of State hag threatened that the Representative 
who voted an impeachment will find himself in 
that Old Capitol Prison ! Be it so. The trea- 
sonable " tinkle of that little bell " that sounds 
that order will be the death knell of the Tinkler. 
I will not believe the threat was ever made. If 
it is made, let us see the recreant Representative 
of the people so great a coward as not to vote an 
impeachment, under such an Executive threat. 
It had been better for him he had never been 
born. 

" His country's curse, his childrens' shame, 

" Outcast of virtue, pej^ce and fame." 

We have paid 5 000.000.000 (five billions) of 
dollars and a half million of lives to preserve 
our free government. We will not yield it to 
usurpation now. 

THE TRUE COURSE TO SETTLE THIS NOW. 

It is said let us wait and see what the future 
course of the Ex-^cutive may be. If a man cheat 
me once, it his fault. If he cheat me twice, it is 
my fault. No! the promptings of self-preserva- 
tion ; the dictates of political wisdono ; the in- 
spiration of statesmanship, all teach that it is 
better to have this great trial of our covernnient 
come in 1867, than posiporied till 1869; then 
to be complicated with a Presidential election, 
and the question whether electors from rebel 
States are to dictate the choice of a President 
to the Loyal North, and also perhaps with a for- 
eign war with all the power it gives to the Execu- 
tive to control a free people. No ! if that " lit- 
tle bell is to sound,'' it is belter that its tinkle be 
heard now, when we have, and shall have for two 
years, a loyal majority of more than two-thirds 
in the government to muffle its clapper. 



20 



Such a conteit, whenever it may come, will 
ghow that the strength, permanence and safety 
of this government rests not in Executive or 



liberties, valuing their free institntions, prcad of 
their country as the great exemplar to show man- 
kind that equal power, equil laws, equal rights 



legiilaiive or jjdicial departments, not in the j «nd equal juj-iice are the true attributes OF 
Army or Navy, but in the education, virtue and Democratic fLECriVB Government. 
iDtelligence of the whole people, prizing their > 



k 



f 



I 



